Monday, 27 March 2017

Another One Bites the Dust: Major arms depot falls to Islamic State

By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

Just over a year after capturing
Deir ez-Zor's Ayyash weapon depot in the largest arms haul of the
Syrian Civil War, the Islamic State has once again got its hands on
massive quantities of ammunition captured from a storage depot in Deir
ez-Zor.This arms hauljoins the list of other major instances where vast amounts of weaponry and munitions traded ownerssuch as thecapture
of the aforementioned Ayyash weapon depot, Regiment 121, Brigade 93
and the Mahin arms depot, all but the last of which were at the hands
of the Islamic State. Each of these depots provided its capturers with a
wide array of weaponry, vehicles and ammunition that could immediately
be used against their former owners, a major blow to other factions
fighting for control over Syria.

A propaganda video
released by the Islamic State, showing its fighters on the offensive in
Deir ez-Zor, was the only footage released of the capture of the depot.
The video, على أبواب الملاحم - 'At the Doors of Epics [Battles]',
details the Islamic State's efforts towards splitting the regime-held
territory in two, which they succeeded in doing so in February 2017.
This means that the airbase and Brigade 137 are now completely isolated,
further complicating efforts to supply both pockets and drastically
increasing the vulnerability of the airbase. Despite the growing threat,
it remains unlikely that the Islamic State will be able to capture
either pocket. The capture of significant quantities of ammunition,
including up to three million rounds of small arms rounds will surely
allow the Islamic State to prolong its fight for survival.

This is an estimate of the ammunition captured, the real
figures are believed to be higher. The contents of at least 652 crates
could not be identified. Small arms are not included due to the small quantities captured.

Although assessing the exact contents of each spam can of small arms
munition is impossible, by volume the total amount would equal roughly
3.32 million rounds of 7.62x39mm, or a slightly smaller numer
distributed of larger calibres such as 12.7mm and 14.5mm. Regardless,
truly a tremendous amount of small arms ammunition was captured indeed.

An
immense quantity of 85mm UBR-365P AP rounds was also discovered in the
arms depot. While certainly an impressive sight, these rounds are
completely useless to the Islamic State. The 85mm D-44 anti-tank cannon
currently is the only weapon in the Syrian arsenal capable of firing
these rounds, but only a small number of these are active on the
battlefield. In fact, the D-44 is so rare the Islamic State is currently
believed to be in the possession of just one.

At
least 693 rounds of 100mm tank ammunition were also found stored in two
seperate rooms. This quantity far exceeds the need of the Islamic State
in the city of Deir ez-Zor as it only operates several T-55 tanks that
use these shells here. It is thus extremely likely that at least a part
was transported to Raqqa for further distribution among Islamic State
units elsewhere.

The
presence of Iranian ammunition crates dated the 5th of May 2015 is
notable, dating back to shortly before the encirclement of the city.
These crates likely arrived onboard of one of the SyAAF's Il-76s that
frequently visisted Deir ez-Zor when it was still possible for these
aircraft to land at the airbase. This has meanwhile become impossible
due to the close proximity of the Islamic State to the runway from the
Eastern and Southern side, a fact that was made painfully clear by the destruction of two L-39s in their Hardened Aircraft Shelter (HAS).

Much
of the ammunition was quickly loaded onto trucks and cars, and was
likely distributed among Islamic State units located throughout Syria.
The targeting of these stockpiles before would prevent this from
happening, and limit the Islamic State's ability to continue
replenishing its stocks. Nonetheless, such action has time and again not
been undertaken by either the SyAAF or Russian Air Force, which
combined with the lack of timely evacuation or sabotage of such depots
by ground units in the first place has been a major boon to opposing
parties during the Syrian War.

The
Islamic State also captured two airdrops destined for regime forces in
the city, one of which was already believed to have been emptied of its
contents before the Islamic State arrived. However, it is extremely
likely that the ammunition from these crates was later encountered in
one of the depots captured. Several airdrops have so far ended up in the
wrong hands after landing in Islamic State controlled territory, which
includes the two pallets below.

While a less than ideal
situation, these airdrops are meanwhile the only way to supply the city
and its inhabitants after the complete encirclement of Deir ez-Zor in
May 2015. Both the United Nations and Russian Air Force have actively
participated in dropping humanitarian aid to the starving population
living in regime-held parts of the city, while Il-76s of the SyAAF are
mostly active for the purpose of supplying weaponry, ammunition and fuel
to the remaining regime forces held up in the city.

In
addition to capturing huge amounts of ammunition, the offensive also
provided the Islamic State with four T-72M1s, more than doubling the
size of the T-72 fleet the Islamic State currently operates in and
around Deir ez-Zor. This arms haul also included a single T-72M1
equipped with the Italian TURMS-T (Tank Universal Reconfiguration
Modular System T-series) fire-control system, amounting the first T-72
TURMS-T to have been captured by the Islamic State.

Interestingly,
two of the T-72M1s feature protective covers around their TPN-1-49 gunner
sights, a modification that is slowly being applied across what remains
of Syria's battered T-72 fleet. A single Czechoslovak AMB-S armoured
utility vehicle was also captured, which will likely end up employed as a
VBIED similar to the two BREM-2 armoured recovery vehicles captured near the Ayyash weapon depots.

3 comments:

I am on my way to critisize SAA on their facebook page but then seems like they had prevent me to sees their pahes anymore.I frequently schoolded them and post some kind of military stupidity like this one.If they continue their careless habbit, they will lose even with Russian and Iranian help.But seems they dont like any critisim

Ya'll are going to need more excuse making for 'where ISIS gets their weaponry' when US JSOC guys find huge quantities of ammo, RPGs and even those TOW missiles CIA would never ever keep sending to 'moderate rebels' who sold them to ISIS under Riyadh John Brennan in Raqqa. But keep trying to keep up the bullshit from the recycled old video and photos from Daeshbag liars that their stuff doesn't come from the Gulf which has been buying massive quantities of ex-Warsaw Pact NATO member nation and ex-Yugoslavia arms (Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia) since 2012.

Get those MI6 talking points ready lads! The Marines and JSOC guys aren't going to keep their mouths shut, and your 85 IQ cousin marrying members of the GCC foreign legion known as Islamic State will be too hasty or lazy to remember to clear the QATAR / KSA manifests from the arms boxes captured outside Raqqa!